For many years, lead was used for making the white pigment used in housing paints.Although lead paint was banned for residential use in 1978 lead from paints is still an environmental health issue in many communities. Lead paint residues often contain elevated levels of lead, zinc, cadmium, copper, nickel, and other toxic elements.Our objective was to determine the effect of simple organic acids on the dissolution of lead from a residential lead-based paint. Batch-type and potentiometric methods were used. Elemental concentrations were determined by ICP-AES. Dissolution of lead and zinc in citrate containing solutions (0.1 M) were faster and had larger equilibrium concentrations of lead and zinc than did acetate solutions, both of which exceeded that of the DI control. Additional chelates are being investigated.